The Avalanche are in Sunrise, Florida to face off against the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Panthers. Puck drop is scheduled for 4:08 p.m. MT at Ameranrt Bank Arena.
Colorado is coming off two consecutive road wins, while Florida has dropped four of its last five. This is the first of two meetings between the teams this season. The Cats beat the Avs in both games last season.
Head coach Jared Bednar has been moving wingers around the top two lines since Valeri Nichushkin and Jonathan Drouin returned to the lineup. No one combination has stood out so he’ll continue to shift players around until that chemistry forms organically.
Guerilla Sports’ Jesse Montano said the Avs’ lineup did not look to have changed from the last game at the team’s morning skate at the Panthers’ practice facility in Fort Lauderdale.
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice is mixing up his lineup. According to the team’s senior digital content manager, former Avalanche forward Evan Rodrigues will face his old teammates on the wing of the Panthers’ top line in South Florida.
Alexandar Georgiev is the expected starter and has won each of his last four starts, earning a save percentage of .914 and a goals-against average of 2.22.
Check out my breakdown of the Avalanche’s first 20 games in Flynn’s Daily: Where Avs Sit Quarter Way Through Season.
Season Series
- Nov. 23 at Florida
- Jan. 6 vs Florida
Avalanche Injuries
- Ross Colton (foot, 6-8 weeks)
- Gabriel Landeskog (knee, no timetable)
Projected Avalanche Lines (subject to change)
Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Jonathan Drouin
Valeri Nichushkin — Casey Mittelstadt — Mikko Rantanen
Joel Kiviranta — Ivan Ivan — Logan O’Connor
Miles Wood — Parker Kelly — Nikolai Kovalenko
Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Samuel Girard — Josh Manson
Oliver Kylington — Sam Malinski
Alexandar Georgiev
Justus Annunen
Projected Starters (subject to change)
- Unconfirmed: Alexandar Georgiev (COL)
- Unconfirmed: Sergei Bobrovsky (FLA)
Upcoming Milestones
- Mikko Rantanen needs 4 power-play goals for 100
- Artturi Lehkonen needs 1 point to hit 250
- Cale Makar needs 1 multi-point game to hit 100 becoming the 15th defenseman under the age of 27 in NHL history to do so
How to Watch
- TV: Altitude TV
- Radio: 92.5 Altitude Radio